Kolkata Yatra

I have been fortunate enough to visit Kolkata last weekend. It was a sort of a dream for me to see what this city looks like as I had heard a lot about it. This metropolitan city is in a peculiar state where Left govt is ruling, though leftist ideology in Bengal is declining now. I was eager to see the old capital of India which was the base of Indian national movement and which has perhaps the oldest and the most enriched history of literature, art, industry, science and people life in general. Calcutta as it was called earlier is an historical place from where major socio-economic movements and revolutions for betterment of people’s lives have arisen.

The major aspects of experience of this visit are- people’s lives, religion, historical places and entertainment. Taking the first aspect, people I came across seemed busy in their lives irrespective of their standard or class except some couples who like to express their love in public sitting on the benches of parks (I think we need one branch of Bajrang Dal here for moral policing!). Kolkata is a major hub of industries where people from nearby places travel daily to earn their livelihood. It was a typical of a city where one can see the most well to-do person as well as the most poor at the same place. Bengali people have a very special kind of face-built especially women. Women here have Durga like face with broad and big eyes ending near the ear, big lips, round face coupled with untied hair. This place seemed to me women dominated in terms of their visibility and appearance at public places.

Another major theme here is religion. Durga puja is the most celebrated festival here which renders the city “more” overcrowded. Big Durga idols were travelling in the city with people rejoicing at loud voices. Banners and hoardings displayed festivity of the environment with attractive product offers. People were too excited and busy for their festival of the year.

Historical places I visited are- Dakshineshwar Temple, Howrah Bridge and Victoria Palace. Dakshineshwar temple is old Kali temple where Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramhansh used to visit. There was huge crowd there as it were starting days of Navratra. For Howrah Bridge, we did not need to go far away as it could be seen from Howrah railway station. It is a giant old bridge connecting Howrah to main city. Visit to Victoria Palace was the most memorable one. It is a great place having great historical significance. It was built in the memory of Queen Victoria of England. It was a giant whitish palace which really looked like a palace of a King or Queen. There was a gallery displaying painting and idols of old English viceroys, commanders in India, paintings of past people and their way of lives under colonial rule, paintings of old historical temples and different places of India, exhibition of weapons of English times, pictures and description about Bengali cities, lives, people, literature, music, art, science, industry and what not. It was a full show of Bengal history under colonial rule. I was mesmerized by the beauty of the park area surrounding the palace with pond, lush green grass and trees.

For entertainment, I went to Aquatica, a water park. It was full of fun with water gliding, swimming and different water challenges. The rain was also on time with people in full mood for joy and delirium.

On the whole, it was a one day and two night trip (two nights for travelling!). This is too short a time to fully experience such a lovely city. But for a first time visitor, it was a day of excitement and bewilderment.

Living a life at a distant place

Before proceeding, I want to mention that I am being allegedly trained at NTPC Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district in Bihar since last month. It is very interesting to write about the first job experience. But for me, it is a less of an experience of the job than the experience of living in Bihar in a govt. company’s township away from city. There are three aspects of this experience as mentioned above- Bihar, Govt. company and remote area which is at 30 hours of journey (of course by train!) from home.

Looking at the first aspect, as it turns out, Bihar does not seem that much a bad place. Except from news of looting by burglars in the train, some mishaps by local goons, and so on, it seems a place where people are struggling to get their lives running. At such place, opportunities are substituted by tough dull work. People are moving to other states for jobs (and often make news by getting beaten!). But here am I, a person who has moved to Bihar for work. It feels different and very strange when I tell my friends that I have come to Bihar. But this feeling, I guess, is more about moving to a different distant place than about moving to a backward and disturbed place.

Now I hear that Nitish Kumar is putting his all efforts to change some things here and also getting awards for this. It is also heartening to note that people are, at some places, choosing their leaders based on developmental issues.

Now let’s look at another aspect- a remote place. Though I have not enjoyed comforts (or discomforts) of cities all through my life but four years spent in Delhi is enough for anybody to get addicted to a city life. But to be honest, I have seldom enjoyed that life in Delhi. It was all too confusing for a person like me having a village background. I did not quite understand different people there and also the reasons behind what they were doing. It was too much to handle those different paths or options. I also tried my hands at some options but not knowing good reasons behind them. I still regret sometimes for not choosing one path and excelling at that path only. But coming to the point, by spending some time away from such place, I am now feeling little bit relaxed so as to clear my mind removing the garbage filled in it by a city life. But at times, I feel restless about lost opportunities. Anyway, life here at a remote place gives time to think about ourselves and what really we want to achieve.

There are, of course, some problems here about different facilities like Internet, TV, entertainment, but then, we find different ways to engage ourselves like reading (novels), sports, exercise, gym, discussions (mostly about food and salary!) etc. And interestingly, I find more sense in doing these things than what I did living in a city with all the facilities available. Another thing that I have to mention here about is weather. It is very pleasant with fresh cool breeze and occasional rains. Though this area has often been affected by flooding of rivers like Kosi, for a person from Rajasthan, it is still a thrilling experience. Besides this, connectivity of this place with other places turns out to be very poor. To reach home from here would in itself be a great achievement.

Now let me put my thoughts on the last aspect- a Govt. company. Not many surprises here. It is a typical govt. company having lot of resistance and passivity in terms of changing or improving things. To get a one simple facility is like trying our hands on a draconian task. To change one process is like you would have spent your life while file pertaining to changes reaches to its destination. People here have developed, with passage of time, special traits so as to survive in this environment. They no longer take pain in thinking about ways to improve things. They start to accept and appreciate the so called culture of Contacts or Jugaad which is the only way to get things done for you.

Let’s put aside the problems and mention some positives. Despite so much stagnation in the company, it has managed to not only survive but also to excel in some sense in the growing power sector market. Its net profits are touching Rs. 8,000 Cr. and revenue to Rs. 40,000 Cr. per year. It is aggressively expanding to set up more power plants with higher capacities in all the power generation areas- coal, hydro, nuclear etc. It is currently recruiting more than 1,000 engineers from IITs, NITs and other colleges every year. This, to me, sounds very peculiar about the company which, while maintaining a typical govt. hierarchy and time based growth structure, is showing such a growth. I may be excused for sounding like a marketing person of this company in this para, but it is a matter of surprise for me also after facing these facts.

Now leaving aside this serious and boring description, let me try to conclude my thoughts. My purpose of writing this was to be able to convey to my friends who keep asking on orkut/phones how I am at this place. But I have to still mention what I am feeling here and what am I going to do in near future. Well, feeling is mixed but slightly positive. And future plans are, for the moment, unborn because of the huge bond amount. :)